


Idyllic love

by Simply_A_Cherry_Bomb



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Awkward, Fluff, Highschool AU, M/M, Really fluffy, Tutoring, hand holding, not that much, slight angst, tutors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:00:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28338864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simply_A_Cherry_Bomb/pseuds/Simply_A_Cherry_Bomb
Summary: Jaemin has a problem. His grades are falling, his parents and teacher are on his back, but the most important one of them all is that his tutor, Mark Lee, is too distracting for his own good. Straight from the bag of clichés, Jaemin offers to start a rewards system between them, who thought Mark would agree.
Relationships: Mark Lee/Na Jaemin
Comments: 11
Kudos: 103
Collections: NCTV Secret Santa 2020





	Idyllic love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [baridalive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/baridalive/gifts).



> The prompt was : Jaemin has a problem. he needs to get his grades up if he wants to keep his scholarship, so he goes to a tutor. the tutor is mark lee. na jaemin spends most of his time flirting with his tutor mark lee. this is a problem, so they set up a system: for every question jaem gets right [or when he gets good marks on a test or something], he gets a kiss from mark. it's a good deal... until feelings get involved.
> 
> I'm sorry if this isn't up to what you expected ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ I ended up going off on a tangent with this. I actually planned to do the markhyuck prompt, but then I had never tried this ship so I gave it a go and I really liked it ! So thank you <3 cause of this I ended up giving another ship chance and had a lot of fun :)

Jaemin should’ve seen it coming. It comes as no surprise when Jaemin hurries over to the board displaying their grades to see that he was sixth, a whole three ranks lower than what he got the last term. Dread fills him when he sees the teacher handling his scholarship appear to his left with a frown on his face. Surely getting called into the staff room with a tight smile wasn’t a bad thing, right? 

  


“Your grades have been dropping,” is the first thing his teacher, Jung Jaehyun, says, gently pulling down his glasses to stare up at Jaemin from below his bangs. It’s a little intimidating, the look his teacher was giving him. His nerves were already on edge from imagining what his parents were going to say to him when he got home, seeing Mr Jung practically glare was causing his stomach to twist in multiple directions.

  


“It’s just two ranks,” he tries to reason with a faint smile, which is soon wiped off when Mr Jung places his glasses to the side. _Why did he put his glasses to the side_ , Jaemin thinks, unnaturally hiding his hands behind his back and unconsciously crossing his fingers every time Mr Jung makes the smallest move. 

  


“Two ranks is a lot when it comes to a scholarship student, no?” Mr Jung replies with a grin, but it isn’t just a normal grin, it's the one where he has his eyes shut and his veins popping from his temples. He’s about to burst soon if Jaemin says another stupid thing and he really isn’t looking forward to that. It’s happened once before when he refused to go on a school trip that contributed to class credits and he ended up on the verge of tears because of how terrifying Mr Jung had become. He had pulled his hair back and looked down at Jaemin with his chin up high in the air and only at that moment did Jaemin get flashbacks to the time his friend told him about how Mr Jung used to be a popular delinquent in their area until he got into a relationship and fixed his life.

  


“I’ll try harder,” Jaemin swallows the rest of his sentence when Mr Jung turns to him in annoyance.

  


Jaemin braces himself as his teacher opens his mouth. “You said that last time when you got fourth and the time before that when you came second.” He pauses and takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “Look, Jaemin. I’m just worried for you, okay? Your parents will come for my throat if you fall below our standards and I really can’t handle getting shouted at by them again. It’s embarrassing enough that everyone knows about how I behaved when I was in high school, but it’s worse when parents come in and yell about it in corridors.”

  


To be honest, Jaemin does feel pretty bad about that, It was his fault that his grades were falling but Mr Jung had to take the blame for it because he was his supervising teacher. Mr Jung already had dark circles from the many students he handled and Jaemin just wanted to lessen his burden. 

  


“I asked someone to tutor you.” Mr Jung’s words resonate through Jaemin before he snaps out of it and looks at his teacher with a face of surprise. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. The kid I spoke to was more than happy to take you on.”

  


“Is this person in my year?” Jaemin would be lying if he said it didn’t hurt his pride to be tutored by someone the same age as him. Getting told that he got something wrong by them felt embarrassing, sort of insulting. Jaemin didn't have a big ego - he didn’t think he was the smartest or anything - however, it still hurt his pride. 

  


“No,” Mr Jung says and Jaemin lets out a sigh of relief. “His name is Mark Lee, he’s a year older, also a scholarship student who’s currently ranked number one in our school.”

  


Now that’s pretty impressive. In all honesty, Jaemin found it pretty difficult balancing his daily life with studies. He didn’t have a job or anything but had three younger siblings who required a lot of his attention since his parents often left home at random times for work. 

  


“I’ll give you his contact details, so just work out something with him yourself,” Mr Jung reaches for his pen and scribbles some numbers onto the paper before handing it to him. “Remember, if you don’t get your grades back on track before the end of the year, we’ll have no choice but to drop you from our course.” 

  


Jaemin gulps down the pressure and anxiety bubbling up within him and nod nervously at Mr Jung. He accepts the chit of paper and makes his way out of the room, his heart stuck in his throat and he catches sight of messages from his parents on his phone. They must’ve gotten an email about this all, right? Jaemin holds a hand to his head and presses his fingers against his temples, hoping for some relief. This Mark Lee has to be some sort of miracle worker to be able to help Jaemin get his former position as number one back.

  


  


  


-

  


  


  


“My name’s Mark Lee, I’m 17 years old and I’ll be in your care from now onwards.” 

  


Jaemin glances up from his book and stares at Mark with his mouth hanging open. Mark looks a lot different from what he imagined. In his mind, Mark had thick glasses, incredibly short hair and probably coloured eyes, after all his name was foreign. But this Mark Lee was nothing like that. He had jet black hair that went past his eyes, thin-rimmed golden glasses that fit perfectly upon his nose and red tinted cheeks. He had a pretty face, a cute and pretty face. If he brushed his hair a little more and threw on some makeup he’d look like a k-pop idol if he wanted. And on top of that, he didn’t look an inch foreign.

  


“That’s because I am Korean, just born and raised in Canada till I was 12,” Mark answers shyly, bowing his head to the side a little, the blush on his cheeks a lot darker than before.

  


“Did I,” Jaemin stops and holds his hand over his face as realisation falls upon him. “Did I say all of that out loud?”

  


“Yeah,” Mark mumbles, fiddling with his bag straps and trying his best to hide the embarrassed look on his face. “Anyways, Mr Jung told me ” he stutters over his words, the fact that he felt uneasy was written all over his awkward smile and Jaemin tried his best to hold his laugh back when Mark’s voice cracks. He sighs and stops talking altogether. 

  


“What do you wanna start with?” Jaemin asks, clutching his arm to hold back the laugh that was begging to come out when Mark looked at him with a thankful expression. 

  


“I wanted to see the scores you got for each test,” Mark finally says once he’s got himself composed. “After seeing them I’ll be able to offer you my help.”

  


Jaemin reaches for his bag and pulls a couple of papers out, feeling his cheeks heat up when Mark’s eyes widen at the numbers written at the top of the page in red. They’re not terrible, of course, they’re not, how else would he have ended up in the top ten? But they’re not the scores someone like him should be achieving. 

  


“This isn’t bad,” Mark says out of the blue when flipping through the pages. “To be honest the only thing you’re doing wrong is going into too much detail for all your answers and then getting marks knocked off for things unacceptable in the marks scheme.” Mark brushes his hair out of his way and pushes his glasses back up his nose when he leans forward to point something out to Jaemin. “You see, over here you got the answer wrong because-”

  


And then Jaemin loses focus. How could he not when Mark suddenly invaded his personal space? Up close he looked even cuter than before, although it looked like he hadn’t slept in a while because of how dark his eye bags were. Jaemin could see them despite the bit of makeup rubbed onto them, it was a little endearing that he even tried to hide something like them and did such a terrible job at it. Mark suddenly scrunches his nose as he stutters on another word and Jaemin feels his heartbeat a little faster. He really was adorable.

  


Jaemin turns his eyes away from Mark’s face and onto his hands instead. They had small plasters wrapped around his fingers and he frowned at the sight. Just what did he do to get hurt on his fingers? Did he study far too often and end up getting blisters, or were they remnants from other things? 

  


Mindlessly, Jaemin reaches out and softly traces the tip of his finger across Mark’s wrist, surprised at how cold he was. Maybe it was because of the lack of flesh around the area or because the library they were in had horrible heating. Jaemin was going to make sure they met somewhere else next time. Without paying much attention to how Mark had stopped talking, Jaemin slipped his fingers around Mark’s and gaped at how rough they felt. The only time Jaemin had felt hands like these were when he held his mum’s hands and helped her with chores. Still, in his own world, Jaemin brought their joint hands up to his face and twisted them around, examining their differences.

  


“Um,” Mark’s feeble voice made Jaemin blink right back into reality. “What’re you doing?”

  


“Oh my god!” Jaemin abruptly lets go of Mark’s hand and leans away from him. “I’m so sorry, it’s just I found your hands interesting and then felt like touching them and didn’t realise I was until you spoke to me.”

  


“You found my hands interesting,” Mark looks weirded out and covers his hand with his other one before pulling his sleeves up in an attempt to feel less exposed, but what he doesn’t realise is that Jaemin can’t help but find him cute with how his sweater paws perfectly fit the whole soft look. “Were you even listening to me?”

  


“Yes,” Jaemin lies and quickly shifts around in his chair, heavily confused by his own actions, “Let’s continue, yeah?”

  


Mark looks reluctant to do so but still nods along and starts to write up a list of areas he wanted to go through with Jaemin. “You obviously have your head around the basics, so there’s no need in going too in-depth with that.” Mark writes the last full stop and awkwardly turns to Jaemin. “I thought we could just get familiar with each other today and then start the lessons from tomorrow onwards if that’s alright with you?”

  


Jaemin nods absentmindedly, still thinking about why he was acting out. 

  


“I was also wondering if, um,” Mark clears his throat, feeling conscious under Jaemin’s heavy gaze. “If we could meet up elsewhere? It doesn’t feel right talking in the library and it’s a little...” 

  


“Cold?” Jaemin offers with a smile. Mark peeks at him with wide eyes and nods his head in agreement. “We could meet up at my house?”

  


“No,” Mark answers a little too quickly and it stabs Jaemin straight in the heart. “I mean,” Mark’s quick to try and clear the air when Jaemin’s face drops at his reply. “I was just thinking we could stay back in school instead? Use one of the empty classes.”

  


“Would they allow us to do that?” Jaemin asks and Mark smiles at that.

  


“Why would they refuse their top students from using an empty classroom to study?”

  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


“That’s called being a creep,” Donghyuck comments once Jaemin finishes his story. 

  


“I wasn’t trying to be creepy!” Jaemin cries, turning to Jeno for help. “Listen, when you see him for yourself you’ll agree with me. He’s kinda cute and there’s something about him that’s like calling out to me.”

  


“That’s what every creep says,” Donghyuck blurts out and immediately curses when Jaemin elbows him, causing him to lose his game. “Alright, alright, show me this incredibly cute boy who’s caught your heartstrings.”

  


“He hasn’t caught my heartstrings, what the hell,” Jaemin hits Donghyuck again and reaches for his phone. “I’m not gay, I’m just saying he’s cute.”

  


“Hey dude, we won’t judge you,” Jeno says, holding his hands up to defend himself when Jaemin’s attack turns to him instead. By the time Jaemin pulls up his conversation with Mark, the door to their classroom opens with a slam. There stands a red-faced Mark.

  


“I wasn’t uh, meant to slam the door open, sorry,” Mark’s apologies become quieter and quieter as more eyes fall upon him.

  


“Is that your cute tutor?” Donghyuck asks and twists his head to get a better look. “Well, he sure is adorable.”

  


A hit to the head from Renjun causes Donghyuck to backtrack. “I mean, he’s not that- he’s not you- he-” Renjun stops him halfways and tells him he was only messing around with him, but Jaemin can tell by the way Renjun stroked Donghyuck head that it wasn’t a joke.

  


“Jaemin!” Mark looks happy, more like relieved, to see Jaemin. “I got the keys to my class, so after school, you can just come up there when you want.”

  


Jaemin hums in agreement and then holds his phone up. “You know you could’ve just messaged me, right?” The look on Mark’s face makes Jaemin regret saying the words. “But this was better!” Jaemin is quick to follow up. “Thanks for telling me personally, otherwise I probably would’ve missed the text since I don’t use my phone much.”

  


Mark’s face lightens up and he smiles at Jaemin. “No problem! Don't forget to come up after school, okay?”

  


“Okay, okay!” Jaemin smiles back and waves at Mark until he leaves. 

  


“Well then, Mr I-am-not-gay-but-totally-just-lost-my-heart-to-that-guy, how you holding up?” Donghyuck snickers and this time it's Jeno who hits him on the head.

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


“Do you have to sit this close?” Mark asks when their legs brush against each other for the tenth time in just the last two minutes. Jaemin looks up from where he was pretending to read and tilts his head in confusion. 

  


“What do you mean?” Jaemin counters and leans closer with a pout. “You don’t like sitting next to me?”

  


“That’s not it!” Mark shrinks in on himself and spins his pen on his hand. “It’s just, there’s a seat next to me so why are you sitting opposite me on the same table.”

  


It’s on purpose because Jaemin has this sudden urge to make Mark conscious of him. It was weird, Jaemin himself agrees, but Mark had such priceless reactions it was hard to not do just that. Every time their fingers would come within a close range, Mark would jerk his hand back before Jaemin could touch him and his face would easily show exactly what he was thinking.

  


“This is easier,” Jaemin states and then shuffles on his chair to become even more unbelievably close. 

  


“Jaemin,” now Mark sounds stern. “It’s been five days since we started these lessons and it feels like we’ve barely even made any progress.”

  


Mark sounds tired and Jaemin actually feels bad for being the reason. He wasn’t purposely not paying attention, it’s just being in such a close environment with Mark just made him lose his train of thought. Mark was just distracting. That’s right, Mark was distracting. He was cute and adorable and tended to brush his not so long hair behind his ears and scrunch his nose whenever he messed a question up and kept chewing on his lips as if that would help him. 

  


“You’re very distracting,” Jaemin internally curses the fact that he had zero brains to mouth filter there, but then Mark flinches at his words and a blush creeps its way up to his neck, and now Jaemin has no regrets.

  


“Well, what am I supposed to do about that?” Mark huffed out and sat back in his seat. “I can’t exactly explain everything to you over the phone.”

  


Jaemin ponders for a moment and then smiles brightly at Mark. “How about you distract me differently?”

  


Mark looks hesitant, well obviously he does, Jaemin had been spewing nonsense ever since they met. Whatever he was going to say was bound to be something stupid. But he still clicks his pen and gestures for Jaemin to explain himself.

  


“How about you set a reward for me?” Jaemin suggests and Mark immediately rolls his eyes.

  


“Your reward is that you get to continue attending this school, how’s that?” Mark replies with a sly smile and Jaemin wonders if Mark had always seemed this sarcastic.

  


“But that’s a given!” Jaemin argues, hoping that his words would come off convincing. “Yeah sure, I’ll get to continue studying here, but I want a reward from you, not the school.”

  


Mark pauses and turns his attention to the table. The fact that he was thinking this hard just for him was a little refreshing. It brought a smile to Jaemins face, seeing Mark frown and repeat his words softly.

  


“What,” Mark begins quietly, looking a little scared. “What kind of reward do you want?”

  


He agreed, Jaemin thinks, surprised that Mark gave in so quickly. He had assumed that Mark would be a little more strong on his word and not let himself get dragged down by Jaemin. Now that he had agreed Jaemin had to think of something off the top of his head. The only thing that came to mind was from the movie his sister had watched yesterday. For the sake of just saying something, Jaemin carefully places his hands on the table and stands up a little, just enough so that he was hovering above Mark. The older boy glances up at him in confusion but allows Jaemin to speak.

  


“How about a kiss?”

  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


“I believe that was deserved,” Donghyuck giggles but still takes an ice pack out and holds it out to Jaemin. “Who in their right mind would say yes to kissing you?”

  


“Everyone but Mark Lee apparently,” Jaemin rumbles and holds the ice pack to his cheek, in hopes that the swelling would lessen so he could go home. His parents would probably freak out and contact the school and make it a big deal. 

  


“He seems shy, why would you ask him so bluntly?” Donghyuck shakes his head and pats Jaemins arm in an attempt to comfort him. “I’m not going to ask why you offered a kiss when you claim to not be gay, but here’s one thing for sure. He won’t say yes that easily.”

  


Jaemin shrugs his hand off and reaches for his phone that was on charging. There are a few messages from his parents saying they’ll be coming home late and then a few from his siblings saying they finished their homework and were gonna watch tv. And then at the bottom of the entire list, there’s a missed call from Mark.

  


Jumping up in surprise, almost causing Donghyuck to fall off the bed, Jaemin unplugs his phone and runs out onto the balcony. He shuts the door behind, not missing the way Donghyuck cursed him for taking away all the heat in his room and calls Mark.

  


“Hello?” Mark’s voice is quiet as if he’s whispering, and there’s a bunch of background sound blocking Jaemin’s thought process. “Jaemin?”

  


“Ah, yeah, Mark,” Jaemin nods to and hugs himself when the cold hits him in the face. “You called me earlier. Was it something important?”

  


There’s a moment where Mark doesn’t say anything and the background sound quiets down until there’s none and the two of them stay on call in silence. Jaemin can hear his pulse in his ear and the winds a bit too chilly for him to stay out for too long, but he can’t end the call just yet. Not before Mark told him what he needed to. 

  


“I called earlier because, uhm,” Mark sounds nervous and Jaemin can’t help but smile to himself. “What you said today, in the classroom...Oh! First, let me apologise for hitting you with my bottle, it just surprised me a little.”

  


“No, no, it’s fine, I also-” Before Jaemin can apologise for suggesting such a bizarre idea, Mark cuts him.

  


“I’ll give you that reward.”

  


A second passes as Jaemin waits for the ‘I’m just joking’, and then another pass and then Jaemin chokes on air. He kneels down and holds his hand to his heart as Mark fills his ears with questions asking if he was alright.

  


“You’ll give me the reward, by the reward are you referring to the kiss I mentioned?” Jaemin really hopes that the light from Donghyuck’s room was dim enough to hide the blush on his face. If Donghyuck was to see him he’d probably laugh at him. 

  


Mark clears his throat and hums in agreement. “If you manage to score over 95 per cent in the next class test, I’ll give you the reward.”

  


Then just as Jaemin tries to form a sentence Mark ends the call, leaving a confused yet satisfied Jaemin alone on the balcony. The door slowly opens and Jaemin glances up to see Donghyuck looking down at him with a smug smile.

  


“What’s got you looking so red, hm?”

  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


The next few sessions are a little awkward. Mark’s conscious of every little thing Jaemin does and vice versa. At one point Jaemin tried swatting a bug away and ended up brushing his fingers against Mark’s cheek and the older boy almost shrieked and jumped away. It was awkward but definitely less distracting. Jaemin was trying his hardest to perfect his work and Mark had been helping him through it all. 

  


“The test’s next week,” Jaemin says when they realise the sun’s almost set and most of the students have already left.

  


Mark stuffs his book into his bag and sloppily throws it over his shoulder. “That means you’ll get the result in about two weeks, right?”

  


Jaemin nods and the two turn away from each other in the realisation that it was almost time to see if Jaemin would get his reward. As they walked down the corridor side by side, exchanging a few words about how they were going to spend their weekend, Jaemin thought of an idea. “How about you come over to mine tomorrow? That way we can continue the sessions.”

  


Mark opens his mouth to agree when he suddenly slaps his own hand against it. “I’m sorry, I can’t come on a Saturday.”

  


Jaemin raises an eyebrow. “What comes?”

  


Mark looks around them and then grabs Jaemin’s collar, bringing him close and quietly whispering, “I have a part-time job on the other side of town.”

  


“You work?” Jaemin blurts out loudly and ends up having Mark cover his mouth as well. “Sorry, sorry. You work?”

  


“Yeah, my dad’s salary just barely pays our rent and the costs of food necessities are what I took upon myself to take care of,” Mark smiles and pauses at his locker. They change their shoes and start to make their way out of the school building. Since they live in the same direction they figured they could walk home together till they had to split. It was a little nerve-wracking, in Jaemin’s opinion. The way Mark walked was not simple. He always swayed a little to the right, or randomly switched the side he was holding his bag whenever Jaemin got too close, and his hand was always out there. At one point Jaemin almost grabbed a hold of it, but the last bit of sense in his head stopped him.

  


“You’re quite responsible, do you have any siblings?” From experience, Jaemin could very easily say that kids were not exactly the hardest obstacle to a calm and peaceful life, but they definitely weren’t the easiest either. Jaemin had spent many nights lying next to his siblings and helping them sleep before returning to his studies, so he understood the frustrations someone could feel.

  


Mark shakes his head. “I used to live with my aunt before, so I guess you could count my older cousins as siblings, but we didn’t really speak much.”

  


The look on Mark’s face is a little alarming but Jaemin decides against prying. It wasn’t any of his business and he didn’t want Mark to feel awkward or even more guarded around him. It had already taken a while before Mark began to speak to him less formally, Jaemin didn’t want to go straight back to square one.

  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


“Poor Mark sunbae,” Donghyuck holds a hand to his eye and he wipes away a fake tear. “Now he has to kiss your dumb ass.”

  


“Hey!” Jaemin slaps Donghyuck’s face away from his test results and quickly stands up before anyone could notice the enormous smile on his face. “Don’t rain on my parade.”

  


Donghyuck opens his mouth to say something when Renjun pulls him back by his ears. Jaemin shoots him a thankful smile before hurrying out of his class. Their last lesson had just ended and it was a Tuesday, which meant Mark would still be in school, probably stuck with some class duty. Pushing past a few students gathered by the staircase, Jaemin ran towards Mark’s classroom. His heart was on its way out of his body by the time he reaches the door and there’s a moment of silence when Jaemin opens the door and stares at the older boy. 

  


Mark parts his lips to say something but then stops and focuses his eyes on the paper that Jaemin had been clutching. His eyes widen as realisation dawns upon his confused face and he’s fast in packing his bag and excusing himself from the duty. No one questions why the two of them looked so nervous and neither do they point it out.

  


They make their way out of school and soon find themselves at the bus stop they normally stand together at. It’s a lot emptier and that’s probably because they are part of the few kids that live in that direction, but Jaemin feels really self-conscious at the moment and feels like the students who did come there purposely went another way. The silence isn’t scary, neither is it uncomfortable, but Jaemin has no idea how he’s supposed to ask the question that they’re both waiting for. He knows he needs to ask it before parting ways, however, there’s a lot of pressure on him and the mood still doesn’t feel right.

  


He can see from the corner of his eye that Mark was preparing himself by trying to calm his heart down and he was doing the same. Closing his eyes to take a deep breath, Jaemin turns his head to Mark.

  


“I got 98 per cent,” he says, feeling a sense of pride when Mark smiles at his words. The silence continues for a while longer as their bus comes along. Jaemin perks up and glances over to Mark in panic. He wanted to make sure he’d get his reward but the words just couldn’t seem to come out. Mark still has a smile on his face as he starts walking up to the bus. Jaemin’s face drops as he realises that Mark had either forgotten about what the reward was or maybe he was just tricked. With his tail tucked between his legs and his ears down on his head, Jaemin pouts and follows after Mark.

  


But then Mark abruptly stops walking and turns around. “Jaemin-ah,” he says, the fond smile on his face still there. “Well done.”

  


Then Mark leans forwards, grabbing Jaemin hand and holding the paper to the left to hide them before kissing him on the lips. It's more like a peck as Mark almost immediately pulls away, but it’s enough to knock the air out of Jaemin. He’s speechless as Mark gives him another smile before hopping onto the bus. The bus driver calls out to him, asking him if he was going to climb on, but he can’t seem to form a sentence. 

  


The doors to the bus close and it begins to go past him when Jaemin snaps back into reality. He looks up to see Mark waving at him from the window and now he’s really conscious of how red his face must’ve been. He never expected Mark to take the initiative. But more than that, he didn’t think a kiss that lasted only a second would make his heartbeat that fast.

  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


Jaemin is a little surprised when he arrives at school and finds out that Mark wasn’t there yet. He lurks near Mark’s classroom with a frown on his face until a tall freshly dyed blonde guy suddenly walks out.

  


“You’re a lost puppy and who are you?” The boy asks and then another one appears beside him. 

  


“He’s asking who you are and why you look like a lost puppy,” the other, slightly shorter, boy says, a small smile on his face. 

  


Jaemin glances between the two and then into the room. He had seen these two near Mark a few times before so maybe they’d know why he wasn’t in. “I’m Na Jaemin, I’ve been getting tutored by Mark for the past few weeks.”

  


“Jaemin?” The shorter boy repeats and then lightens up. "Ah! Jaemin, of course. I know who you are. Come on in, don't be shy around us, we're the same as Mark."

  


Jaemin somehow ends up dragged into the classroom and the two boys surround him, stars sparkling in their eyes as they stare at him. He's confused and wants to ask why they were reacting this way, but then the thought that maybe Mark had told them something flashed through his mind and he cowers into his seat. 

  


"My name's Xiao Dejun, you can call me Xiaojun, most of my friends call me that," the shorter one starts and then grabs the taller one. "This guy's name is Yukhei, we call him Lucas because he felt like having a fancy English name like Mark."

  


Yukhei nods and then squints his eyes at Jaemin. "So why were you hiding behind the door?"

  


"I wasn't hiding," Jaemin mumbles, feeling exposed as he was caught red-handed. "I was just checking to see if Mark was here."

  


"He's not feeling well, caught some sort of flu over the weekend so he couldn't make it. Missed out so much classwork," Dejun sighs and then turns to Jaemin. "Hey, why don't you go over to his house and give him the worksheets for today?"

  


"I can go?" Yukhei points at himself and pushes Jaemin to the side by his shoulder. "Why not me?"

  


"Because we have club activities to get to," Dejun grabs Yukheis arm and squeezes it lightly, then turns his attention back to Jaemin. "And if I remember correctly, your year's club activities were put to a halt because of your class tests?"

  


"Yeah," Jaemin absentmindedly nods and accepts the bunch of papers handed over to him. He barely gets any time to process what was happening before he's shoved out of the classroom by Dejun and the post-it-notes slapped onto his forehead. He peels it off himself and reads the contents. "Ah shit," he says to himself. "I'm going to Mark's house."

  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


The bell to Mark's house rings and Jaemin patiently waits outside, his hands sweaty from how nervous he felt. The door opens slowly before revealing a dishevelled looking Mark Lee. His eyes were swollen, cheeks were flushed, hair was a greasy mess, clothes were falling off him and his mouth was wide open in shock as he faced Jaemin. 

  


"Jaemin?" He asks in surprise and then the door shuts close. Jaemin blinks a few times in confusion and reaches out to ring the bell once again when the door reopens. This time Mark's has a cap over his head with a face mask on. His clothes are pat-down neatly and Jaemin looks down to hide his laughter. "What are you doing here? Actually, no. How did you find out where I live?"

  


"Dejun sunbae told me," Jaemin answers, shifting from one foot to another. "He said that since he has club activities that I should come over to hand these sheets to you."

  


"Club activities? What was he on about? Club's were closed for class tests," Mark says, looking at Jaemin with wide eyes that suddenly understood Dejun's actions. "A-anyways, since you came all the way here, do you want something to eat or drink?"

  


"Mark, you're the one who's sick," Jaemin lightly taps his shoulder and takes a step in. "Excuse me, now go get into bed. I'll make something for you." 

  


Mark looks reluctant and tries to follow Jaemin into the kitchen, but he almost trips and breaks his head so then obediently returns to his bed. The door to his room opens after a while and Jaemin enters with some porridge. 

  


"I bought some on the way here," Jaemin explains sheepishly. He holds the bowl in his hands and holds the spoon out to Mark, who huffs and complains that he could eat on his own. "Fine, try holding the spoon."

  


Mark frowns and reaches out for the spoon. His grips loose and the food almost spills on him. He shoots Jaemin a glare before parting his lips and allowing Jaemin to feed him. 

  


"It's been a while since we saw each other, isn't it," Jaemin attempts to fill in the silence that they were both dreading. But then Jaemin remembers that the last time they were together was when they kissed and he clears his throat awkwardly. "What time does your dad come back from work?"

  


"Eight," Mark quickly answers and gets ready for another bite. Jaemin smiles and holds the spoon back up to his lips. "Normally, he leaves work at 5 but there was a lot to do today and his colleagues wanted to go out for dinner as well. He couldn't refuse."

  


"Why not?" Jaemin asks, annoyed that his dad wasn't even going to be home to check up on Mark. What was Mark supposed to do about dinner if he was stuck in bed and his dad was eating out?

  


"You know how seniors at work are," Mark says, looking distraught. "If he didn't tag along then they would immediately label him as the one who didn't listen to them."

  


Anger fills Jaemin but he remains quiet. Mark would probably be more affected by this yet he was acting calm, Jaemin had to do the same. Taking a deep breath, Jaemin shook off everything and continued to feed Mark, the warm atmosphere making him feel at ease.

  


A few moments after the food finishes and the dishes are washed away, Mark turns to Jaemin in the bed and stares at him with wide eyes.

  


"What, why are you looking at me?" Jaemin chuckles and pretends to be nonchalant when inside he was worrying over how he might look. 

  


"I was just wondering if you really even needed me to tutor you," Mark says softly, his eyes drooping. "Should we just stop now?"

  


"No!" Jaemin leans down and caresses Mark's cheek, worried that the older boy was trying to get rid of him. "Let's keep this up till I can maintain the first place on my own, yeah?"

  


Mark nods along as his eyes continue to close slowly. "That'll be nice. I like this. It reminds me of when my cousins used to tutor me."

  


Jaemin turns to look confused. “Your cousins used to tutor you?”

  


“Yeah,” Mark giggles, looking a little delirious which may have been because of the medicine. “Except, they were a lot more strict. They’d take away my meals if I didn’t get certain grades, or take my rewards away when I achieved better than them.”

  


Jaemin holds a hand over Mark's mouth to stop him from talking. He didn’t want to hear all this when Mark wasn’t even in his right mind. He wanted to hear it from Mark when the older boy felt comfortable enough with sharing information as such. He sighs and then leans in closer, removing his hand to curve it around Mark’s cheek. "Anyways, I like this too."

  


Mark closes his eyes as Jaemin moves forward to close the gap between them when Mark suddenly places his hand over his lips. "Next time," he whispers, sleeps hovering right above him. "Get full marks."

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


"Who are you texting?" Donghyuck asks from behind his book. Jaemin looks up from his phone and glares at Donghyuck. "Is it Mark Hyung?"

  


"Don't call him that," Jaemin grumbles and throws a pen at Donghyuck when he sticks his tongue out. "Since when did you get familiar with him, hm?"

  


"Yesterday," Donghyuck snickers and shows Jaemin a glance from his chat with Mark. All Jaemin gets to see are a bunch of heart emojis and his blood begins to boil. "We exchanged numbers and he allowed me to call him Hyung."

  


"That's stupid, delete his number right now, no actually not just that, block him, he doesn't need a friend like you," Jaemin stands up and starts to kick Donghyuck, who only laughs in response and quickly spins around to grab Jaemin's phone. 

  


"Let's meet at my house for the weekend!" Donghyuck reads out his message and jumps up when Jaemin launches himself towards him. "Your house? Yeah since the library's too cold for you and we can't meet up at school. I'd rather meet up at school on a Saturday than go to your house," Donghyuck pauses and then bursts into laughter. "He rejected you!"

  


"He didn't reject the idea! Look he then agrees— wait, don't look, pass it back," Jaemin climbs onto Donghyuck and peels his fingers open to retrieve his phone. "Asshole."

  


Donghyuck watches as Jaemin quickly deletes the messages that had accidentally been sent when they were fighting over his phone. "So," Donghyuck smiles. "What's up with the two of you? Are you guys just flirting, is it one-sided from your way? Are you forcing Mark Hyung to keep talking to you? What are you threatening Mark Hyung with to make him keep replying to you?"

  


"I didn't do anything," Jaemin mumbles, locking his phone and putting it aside. "And we're friends."

  


"Is that all you want to be with him?" Donghyuck follows up and shuffles closer to Jaemin. "Do you want to stay as friends or get even closer?

  


"I don't know," Jaemin replies, looking down. "I like how we are right now. It's nice, he's nice."

  


"How would you feel if Mark Hyung was to be with someone else?" Donghyuck is relentless as he continues with his questioning. Jaemin barely forms a reply when Donghyuck shoots the next question at him. Honestly, Jaemin wouldn't like it if Mark was to be with someone else if he was to kiss someone else. That was something that was only between Mark and Jaemin, it was something exclusive, right? They had kissed three times now, each time being a single peck which would hurt Jaemin's soul but he managed. 

  


But now if Mark was to do that to someone else, Jaemin would hate that. Didn't kisses mean something? Isn't that why Mark agreed to reward him in that way? The warm feeling that Jaemin felt every time he met Mark, did Mark also feel that? Was it all Jaemin, all just part of his imagination or something? Thinking of it like that made his heartache. 

  


Only now did he realise how involved Mark had gotten in his life. Whenever Jaemin woke up he'd message Mark and ask him where they should meet up to get to school. He spent most of his day chasing after Mark and then after school he'd spend hours getting tutored by him. Jaemin chuckles as he finally comes to understand why his heart always felt so light around Mark and why the blush on his face only appeared when Mark was there.

  


"I think I have feelings for him," Jaemin mutters and Donghyuck stops in surprise, his eyes widening at the sudden confession. "But I don't know if he feels anything towards me."

  


As soon as Jaemin finishes his sentence he gets engulfed into a hug. Donghyuck wraps his arms around him tightly and sighs. "You can find that out later, it's good enough that you've acknowledged your feelings."

  


Jaemin closes his eyes and allows Donghyuck to keep him in the embrace. It's a little nice, Donghyuck always gives great hugs and that was something Jaemin knew since he was younger. Normally, whenever Donghyuck hugged him his mind would go blank and he'd think things through rationally. But for the first time, Jaemin leans in closer and wonders how it would feel to hold Mark in his arms.

  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


"You haven't earned it!" Mark yells as Jaemin cages him between his arms and the bed. Mark holds his hands over Jaemin's lips and scowls. "The tests next week, I know for sure you haven't gotten results for anything back yet."

  


"I'm not doing this because of the rewards system," Jaemin says against Mark's hand, poking his tongue out to tease the older a little. The look on Mark's face is enough to boost his confidence. "I just want a kiss."

  


"But then that defeats the purpose of the reward," Mark looks annoyed but he has a small smile despite his words. “If we kiss now then what would the reward for your next test be?”

  


“We’ll think about that then,” Jaemin answers and leans closer, feeling the grip of Mark’s hand over his mouth loosen. With a smile, he brings his hand up to slowly peel off Mark’s glasses and asks one last time, “So can I?”

  


“You,” Mark pauses, bites his lip and then nods ever so slightly. “You better get full marks next time.”

  


“I will,” Jaemin says, his lips brushing against Marks. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

  


Then he kisses Mark properly for the first time since they started the rewards system, Normally Jaemin had been satisfied by the pecks Mark gave, but there was a limit to everything. Jaemin runs his hand through Mark’s hair softly and curls his fingers around Mark’s neck, lightly pressing them against his jaw and tilting his face up. Mark raises his head obediently and parts his lips when Jaemin slips his hand under his shirt. Jaemin can feel the heat crawling up Mark’s neck and fights back a smile. Of course, Mark would feel embarrassed over something like that. For such a long time he refused to let Jaemin enter his bedroom whenever they came over his house, but now there they were, sitting on the corner of Mark’s bed. 

  


“Hey,” Mark says as he pulls away, his breath coming out in pants. “Can you,” he stops to catch his breath before pointing down with a red face. “Can you stop rubbing that against me?”

  


It takes a few moments before Jaemin understands what Mark was talking about. “Oh!” Jaemin suddenly jumps back with a grimace. “Sorry, oh my god, I wasn’t doing that on purpose, I promise.”

  


“I-it’s fine,” Mark covers the bottom half of his face with his hand and then clears his throat. “Anyways, don’t you think it’s late? Shouldn’t you be going home now, pretty sure your siblings should be getting home from their classes now?”

  


Jaemin knows Mark’s just trying to get rid of him and although that would normally offend him, he nods enthusiastically and scrambles off the bed, the stiffness of his jeans making everything a million times more awkward than it was before. 

  


“I’ll see you out,” Mark calls out as Jaemin hurries down the stairs and to the door. “Don’t forget to think of something for your reward.”

  


Jaemin ties his shoelaces as an idea comes to mind. He quietly opens the door and holds one foot out before turning to Mark and praying for the heavens to be on his side. “Hey, Mark.”

  


“Yeah?” 

  


“How about for the next reward,” Jaemin swallows down any hesitation as Mark’s ears perked up. “If I get full marks, will you go out with me?”

  


Mark’s jaw drops open and Jaemin immediately regrets everything. He spins on his heel and slams the door shut behind himself before running down the street. Jaemin can hear Mark calling his name out, but he doesn’t dare to turn around. The look on Mark’s face just now was enough for Jaemin to understand his answer. He was being a little too hopeful after all Mark was just doing this to help him increase his ranking. 

  


Stupid, Jaemin thinks to himself, lightly slapping his cheeks. He had just ruined everything. 

  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


Jaemin had been avoiding Mark for a whole week now. Whenever the older came to his classroom and asked for him, Jaemin would slip through the second door or hide behind his desk. It was childish, he knows. He should face rejection properly, allow the burden to get off Mark's chest, but he also wants him to think about it for a while longer. Maybe if Mark kept thinking about it he'd feel less disgusted by the idea and perhaps consider it. 

  


"What's wrong?" Jeno asks when Jaemin slumps down in his seat. "You look sad."

  


"I am sad," Jaemin answers, raising his face to pout at Jeno. "I'm sad and feel like crawling into my bed and just crying my eyes out."

  


Jeno blinks down at him before reaching out to pat his head softly. "Go on, let it all out. Tell me everything."

  


"I'm not a baby," Jaemin's about to slap Jeno's hand off, but then stops and sighs. "I messed up."

  


"Messed what up?" Jeno questions, his touch becoming softer as Jaemin continues to open up. 

  


"I asked," Jaemin pauses, a little worried that Jeno might react in a way he doesn't want. But then Jeno smiles down at him and Jaemin gives in. "I asked Mark out, he looked weirded out by me."

  


Jeno's hand stops moving and his mouth parts in surprise, but it's quickly wiped off by a gentle smile. He caresses Jaemin's head and then curls it around his nape.

  


"First of all, you did well confessing," Jeno shuffles closer on his seat so that others wouldn't hear what they were saying. "Secondly, are you sure that he was weirded out? Maybe it's a misunderstanding, what if you misread the atmosphere?"

  


Jaemin hums in agreement and then tugs at his hair. "Ahh! I'm so frustrated and tired. We have finals in less than two months and I really can't be bothered to study."

  


Jeno opens his mouth to say something when a knock on the classroom door makes everyone in the class stop. "Jaemin," Mark's voice is loud and clear and the boy mentioned freezes in pulling his hair out. He turns to Mark with wide eyes and almost makes a run for the door when Jeno grabs his arm and jerks him down onto the ground. The sound of chairs sliding against the floor echoes and Jaemin hears a few people laugh at him from his left. 

  


Embarrassment fills him, but it doesn't stay for too long as Mark suddenly rushes in and takes him by the wrist. Jaemin barely has any time to react before he's getting dragged down the corridor, past a bunch of students looking at them in confusion. 

  


Jaemin's panting by the time Mark finally stops. They're standing in the library, in the section, no one ever comes and Mark looks angry. He looks annoyed, angry, upset — Jaemin doesn't know what's going on. 

  


"Jaemin," Mark sighs and takes the chance to slap his arm. "Why have you been avoiding me?"

  


"I wasn't avoiding you," the lie slips out faster than his brain processes it and Jaemin receives another slap to the arm. 

  


"Is this because of what you said to me last time?" Mark asks with uncertainty. "Or is it because of something I did? Did I forget that we had plans for something? Just tell me, I'll apologise for it. Please don't avoid me."

  


Jaemin feels bad as he realises that Mark probably had no idea why he was doing this. It was pretty obvious that it was because of what he said, but then again Mark was fairly clueless when it came to friends. He had Yukhei and Xiaojun, however, he barely ever hung out with them. 

  


"I'm sorry," Jaemin apologises, lowering his head. "You did nothing wrong. I was avoiding you because of the reward I had suggested."

  


"The reward of the two of us dating?" When Jaemin nods solemnly, Mark lets out a deep sigh of relief. He leans against one of the bookshelves and crouches down. Jaemin watches him and then awkwardly follows him. He takes a seat on the floor and nervously pokes Mark's arm. 

  


"Are you angry?" Jaemin plays with his fingers as Mark doesn't respond. He was angry, wasn't he? He was so angry that Jaemin thought he could suggest such an idea and that it would be alright. Jaemin had been surrounded by people accepting Donghyuck and Renjun, he had assumed that Mark would have no problem with it either. But seeing his reaction now, Jaemin felt bad for even thinking about it. 

  


"Jaemin," Mark raised his head and then slipped his hand into Jaemin's. "I'm not angry that you said that, I'm angry because you thought that I wouldn't be alright with it. Do you really think I'm that narrow-minded?"

  


Jaemin doesn't know how to reply and simply stays quiet. 

  


Mark sighs again and then pulls Jaemin into an embrace. "Listen, I'm not against it. If you get first place in your final exams and are still up for it, I'm more than happy dating you."

  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


"What did Mark say to make you look so happy?" Jeno laughs when Jaemin enters the classroom with a large smile over his face. Jaemin shakes his head and refuses to answer. He walks over to his seat, smiling at everyone along the way and takes a seat, giving Jeno a pat on his arm.

  


"Thank you," Jaemin says heartily and then turns away, the smile on his face shines as he opens up his maths homework and starts to scribble down random answers.

  


"Seriously," Jeno frowns. "What did Mark say to you?" 

  


"He probably said he likes him," Donghyuck says from behind them. Jaemin snaps his head around and glares at him. "Hey, now. I'm just saying what I think happened."

  


"Did he really say that?" Jeno tugs at Jaemin's shoulder.

  


The smile on his face returns and he beams at Jeno. "Yeah, turns out I misunderstood everything."

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


"You need to be more careful," Jaemin grumbles and holds Mark's hands in his. He peels open a plaster and wraps it around one of Marks fingers. "I still don't get how you get so easily hurt."

  


"I was talking to my coworker and didn't notice one of the customers coming from my left," Mark explains, shyly looking away when Jaemin looks up and glares at him. "I got distracted and ended up dropping the plate and getting hurt."

  


"I'll say this again," Jaemin sighs and then throws the wrapper of the plaster away. "You need to be more careful. Like, look at your hands! If people saw them they'd probably assume you do some sort of dangerous jobs, when you're actually just working at a restaurant."

  


Mark stays silent as Jaemin continues to tend to his wounds. They were at Jaemin's house after school had finished. The second Jaemin had caught sight of Mark's hands he immediately dragged the older boy with him. 

  


"You know," Mark starts off quietly, leaning in close almost as if he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was going to say. "Thank you for caring about me."

  


Jaemin pauses his work to stare at Mark. "You don't need to thank me for caring about you. When you're friends with people this kind of such is normal."

  


"It is?" The fact that Mark sounds genuinely surprised stings Jaemin a little. He can already guess the reason why Mark had made such an assumption about how friends work. "When I was younger — I told you this already right? I lived with my cousin's."

  


And then Mark talks to him about everything, and Jaemin listens to everything. For the first time in a while, they have a conversation about Mark. Normally it would be a one-sided, with Jaemin going on about his life. But for once Mark finally spoke to him about things that happened to him in the past. And as weird as it sounded, Jaemin was happy to be one of the only people to have ever been told. 

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


"A week before finals," Donghyuck says, staring at the ceiling with a poker face. "I have one week to break a bone and say I can't take the exams."

  


"How dramatic," Jaemin rolls his eyes and kicks Donghyuck's side. "And get lost, I'm trying to study. If you're not going to do anything then leave."

  


"I am doing something," Donghyuck tickles Jaemin's foot and dodges the next kick. "I'm being demoralising, I'm being a bother. It's a lot of work you know, takes a lot of energy." 

  


“Go demoralise someone else please,” Jaemin sniffles and takes his glasses off, rubbing his eyes as he feels exhaustion shiver through his body. Donghyuck raises his head at the sound and watches as Jaemin stretches.

  


“You know,” Donghyuck stands up and hovers behind Jaemin, slowly bringing his hands to his shoulders. “Wanna take a rest? You’ve been at it for a while and you look like you haven’t slept in ages.”

  


Jaemin knows that Donghyuck only means well, but he can’t help but snap at him and shrug his hands off. “I’m fine. I’ll probably be even better if you left me alone.”

  


Donghyuck doesn’t look offended, he doesn’t look hurt either. He knew how important the exams were for Jaemin, he knew how important Jaemin’s health was in comparison, but he also knew how stubborn he was. With a sigh, Donghyuck reaches over for his bag and pat’s Jaemin’s head. “I’ll leave you to get to it, but make sure to get up after a while. Cramming all your work like this won't help anything, it’ll just make you fall sick.”

  


The door closes behind Donghyuck and Jaemin's left alone in his room, silence filling the space that had been previously occupied. He can't concentrate and the stuff he's reading isn't going into his head, but the pressure and stress of the exams push him above his limit. He knows that he should probably set his work aside and do something else as a stress reliever, but then the idea of missing out on time to revise over all the content scares him.

  


Stretching once again, Jaemin cracks his neck and crouches over his desk again, skimming over the questions and answering them. He stays like that till night falls.

  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


"Shit!" Jaemin jumps up in bed and holds his head as the world spins around him. Ignoring the stinging in his head and the roughness of his throat, Jaemin scrambles to find his phone from under his pillow. The time reads past 8. He's late. He's late on the day of his first exam. "Shit!"

  


He curses at himself and runs around the room, throwing on his uniform before hurrying out to the kitchen. His siblings had a day off today so Jaemin internally thanked their school and rushed around. He skips breakfast and quickly leaves the house, fear of missing the exam being far more than collapsing in public. 

  


"Where are you?" Donghyuck asks the second Jaemin calls him.

  


"On my way to the train station," Jaemin answers, running down a flight of stairs. He hears Donghyuck yell at him for sleeping in and then calm down when the others around him tell him to. 

  


"The exam starts in 15 minutes, the train takes 15 minutes to get here," Donghyuck sighs and Jaemin feels even worse. "How are you going to get here in time? Can't you just run it?"

  


"Run it?" Jaemin pants and leans on the wall of the train the second he gets on. There's a crowd of people and he can barely breathe. The headache was worsening and Jaemin wondered if all this running would cause him to fail his test. "Do you know how far our school is from my house?"

  


"Very, I know," Donghyuck pauses mid-sentence and Jaemin can hear the worry in his voice. "Jaemin, they're telling us to hand our phones in, I'm gonna have to go now but please, hurry as much as you can."

  


The call ends and Jaemin presses his head against the cold surface of the train door. There's a bag sticking right into his back and someone continuously pushing against him from his left. He's stuck in the corner by the door when everything comes crashing down. The doors open and Jaemin feels the strength in his legs give out, hearing a few people gasp as he fell. 

  


Well shit, Jaemin thinks, how embarrassing. Today was just not his day. Everything was falling apart. He was late to wake up, his clothes were a mess, all the content he had spent hours learning was slipping out of his mind and now he was going to miss his exam. But instead of stressing over his lost exam and drop in rank, Jaemin realised he wasn't going to get to be with Mark. There's no way Mark would still accept him after he completely failed an entire test. Losing over 100 marks from one test was going to greatly affect his end result.

  


Accepting his fate, Jaemin braces himself for impact, but then a hand wraps around his arm and he's pulled up. His eyes burst open and he slowly looks up, his mind spinning from all the sudden movement.

  


"Jaemin?" Mark looks confused but isn't given enough time to think before the crowd of people in the train rush out, bumping into them. Mark holds Jaemin close and out of the way. Being so close to Mark after so long feels weird, it's also comforting. After a whole 10 minutes of frantic rushing and panic, it felt nice to press his head against Mark's chest and hear his erratic heartbeat. "What are you doing here? Don't you have a test today?" 

  


"I do!" Jaemin exclaimed and the strength in his legs decreased. "I do and I woke up late, then the train was too packed, the tests about to start. I'm not going to make it and I'm going to fail!"

  


Mark looks from Jaemin to the train and then the exit. He then grabs Jaemin's hand and smiles at him. "Let's hurry, even if you get late you'll still be allowed to take it, just given less time."

  


Without allowing Jaemin to speak, Mark rushes past the crowd entering the train station and runs straight towards Xiaojun, who was leaning against a wall and talking to Yukhei. 

  


"Mark?" They ask in surprise when they see him hurry over to them after just saying bye. "And Jaemin? What's up?"

  


"He needs to get to school, right now," Mark pants and then pushes Jaemin towards Xiaojun. "Can you take him?"

  


"Take me?" Jaemin turns to raise his eyebrow at Mark when Xiaojun suddenly agrees and drags him to a motorbike. "You have a license?"

  


"You're really asking the wrong questions at the wrong time," Xiaojun chuckles and then passes a helmet to Jaemin. "I got my license over the summer, now hop on before Mark shouts at us."

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


"You really don't need to call me every night before a test to tell me to sleep," Jaemin smiles to himself when he hears Mark sigh over the call.

  


"Are you sure about that?" Mark sounds annoyed. "Who almost missed his exam over lack of sleep and exhaustion, hm?"

  


"Okay, okay. I promise I won't do that again," Jaemin even puts his hand to his chest as he says the words. Mark hums in agreement and starts talking about something else. It's barely past 10 as they continue talking. They hadn't spoken in a while due to Jaemin focusing only on his studies and Mark being busy over discussing his choice of universities with his teacher. 

  


Just thinking about Mark graduating made Jaemin frustrated. They weren't going to have their after-school classes in that classroom on the third floor anymore, neither were they going to be able to see each other when walking around the school. It would probably be a lot emptier without Mark around, even if Jaemin was still surrounded by all of his friends. 

  


"After you graduate," Jaemin says after a few moments of silence pass through. He hears Mark take a deep breath at the mention of next year. "We'll still talk, right?"

  


"Well," Mark laughs a little. "I don't think we'd be able to stop talking if you come first."

  


Jaemin's reminded of their deal and immediately reddens at the realisation that he had completely forgotten about it. Mark says a few other things to make him feel even more embarrassed and he quickly ends the call, making up an excuse of having to fall asleep. Just before the call ends he hears Mark mutter a small 'good luck', and that's enough to help Jaemin go to sleep. 

  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


“Just for today,” Jaemin pleas, he even purses his lips and blinks his eyes dramatically. He sees Mark’s will waver before he finally gives in and lets Jaemin put the cat ears onto him.

  


There was a week left till Mark’s last exam and there they were, standing in the middle of a bustling crowd, holding cotton candy in one hand, a drink in the other and a matching pair of cat ears stuck on their heads. It was all Jaemin’s idea. He had suddenly appeared at Mark’s doorstep, tickets to the amusement park a few hours away and a large smile on his face. Despite having the stress of upcoming exams holding him down, Mark agreed to spend the day out but only one. And one day was all Jaemin needed.

  


"We've gone on almost all the rides at this point," Mark sighs and collapses onto one of the nearby benches. "We've been here for over five hours, when are we going home?"

  


Smiling at the fact that Mark was still shaking his leg with excitement, Jaemin pointed at the one ride Mark had been trying his best to avoid. "After we ride that one we'll go home, how's that?"

  


Mark's mouth hangs open and he turns from Jaemin to the rollercoaster and then back. "Jaemin, Jaemin, Jaemin— listen here," Mark grabs his shoulder and pulls him down to eye level. He's glaring and looks like he's ready to hit him, but Jaemin can't help but giggle a little. "You know I'm terrified of roller coasters, and you're suggesting we go on one where we don't have anywhere to put our feet and basically are thrown into the air? What if the screws come loose and we go flying up, huh? What would you do then?"

  


"Then we'll sue the amusement park," Jaemin answers, practically laughing at this point. "Mark! It's not going to suddenly break down coincidentally when we choose to go on it."

  


"I'm not going," Mark stomps his feet and sinks lower in his seat. "You can try anything but I will not move my feet, at all!"

  


Jaemin grabs his arms and tries pulling him, but for some strange reason, Mark's incredibly strong and stands his ground. This goes on for a few more moments before an idea comes to Jaemin's mind, a very silly idea and he knows he probably shouldn't do it, but he gets lost in the spur of the moment and leans forwards, caging Mark between his arms and quickly kissing him on his lips. 

  


Mark's eyes widen in shock and they hear a gasp from a lady passing by on their left. Before Jaemin can say anything, apologise maybe, Mark stands up and slaps Jaemin's arm away. He starts making his way to the exit and Jaemin follows, already sprouting out a string of apologises, only then realising that what he did wasn't the best thing to do. 

  


"We were in public!" Mark exclaims, slapping his hands over his face as he brushes past Jaemin. "You can't do that in public!"

  


"I'm sorry," Jaemin jogs to keep up with Mark's speed walking. He reaches out and grabs Mark's arm before pulling his away from the crowd and into a more quiet area. "I'm sorry, okay? It was just— I just forgot about how we can't do this kind of stuff in public."

  


Mark's still avoiding his eyes as Jaemin continues to speak. "What if someone we knew was there and they saw us? What if they told someone else and then slowly everyone else found out? I'm graduating in literally a few weeks, but what about you? You're going to be at the same school for another year!"

  


"I know!" Jaemin yells and Mark stops speaking. "I know, alright. I know. It's just— I didn't want to hide it. I didn't want to hide what's between us. We should be allowed to do this in public as well, like others."

  


Mark stares at Jaemin for a second before wrapping his arms around him. "Okay, I get it. You just wanted to be all couple-y in public even though it was stupid." Mark taps his forehead against Jaemin's and softly smiles. "It'll be difficult if someone we knew was to see us like this, I understand what you wanted to do, but we can't," Mark pauses, looks away before turning back. "Does that bother you? Do you want to stop this here because it seems hard to get through?"

  


"No!" Jaemin pulls Make into a hug, placing his chin on his shoulder and snuggling in close. "I won't give up on you just because I can't kiss you in front of others, or that we can't hold hands."

  


Mark chuckles and squeezes Jaemin unbelievably closer. "Well, I'm glad you don't regret this."

  


  


  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


  


“Two days till your graduation,” Jaemin says, tracing his finger around Mark’s wrist and then curling it around his pinky. “Two days till you stop walking in the same corridors as me.”

  


“Oh my god,” Mark sighs and turns to his side to face Jaemin, his knees knocking against the younger's and they awkwardly position themselves horizontally on Mark’s bed. “It’s not like it's the end of the world, it’s not as if we’ll never see each other again.”

  


“Well that isn’t impossible either,” Jaemin mutters, pouting when Mark rolls his eyes. “You could find yourself another pretty girl at uni, maybe even start tutoring her. Then one day she could end up confessing to you and by then I would’ve been forgotten.”

  


Mark stares at him with squinted eyes. “Another pretty girl? Do I seem that unfaithful to you?” Before Jaemin can muster up an excuse, or explanation, Mark leans forwards and silences him with a kiss. “Stop being dramatic. I’m only going to be a 30-minute train ride away. We can meet whenever we want.”

  


Jaemin itches to complain even further, but then he catches the look on Mark’s face and feels guilt wash over him. He was so busy being upset on his own he forgot that Mark was having it worse than him. Mark was going to be moving to the city, separating with his dad and entering another phase of his life on his own. Jaemin still had a year till then. 

  


“Let’s call every once in a while,” Jaemin says, smiling when he felt Mark shuffle around in confusion. 

  


“Only once in a while?” Mark looks at him with a raised eyebrow and Jaemin reaches over to pinch it. 

  


He nods and then pokes Mark’s cheek. “They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

  


“But then the rest of me will feel lonely.” They stare at each other before bursting into laughter.

  


“It’s been about almost a year since we met,” Jaemin states once they’ve calmed down and finally started making their way downstairs. With the absence of Mark’s dad, they found it easier to act casually in his house. At Jaemin’s, he had to constantly hide Mark from his siblings, since they seemed to take a great liking towards him. 

  


“Mhm,” Mark pushes Jaemin away from himself with a small giggle. “And almost a year since you called my hands interesting.”

  


“Please forget that!”

  


  


  


  


  


-

  


  


  


  


  


“So?” Mark asks over the phone, the excitement in his voice almost on par with how Jaemin felt when he ran out of his house in the morning to get to school and see the results. “What did you get?”

  


Jaemin takes a deep breath and holds his hand over his chest, his cheeks heating up at how giddy he felt. “Just as you expected,” Jaemin smiles and glances over his shoulder to the large crowd near the results board, the sight of his name at the top making his smile even bigger. “I came first.”

  


He hears Mark sighing out of relief before he suddenly yells into the mic. “Congrats! I’m so proud of you, you worked really hard to get it. Now just remember to work this hard for next year.”

  


“Next year?” Jaemin pauses and looks up to see Mark standing by the gates.

  


“I couldn’t wait,” Mark chuckles nervously, ending the call and closing the distance between them. I felt anxious at home waiting for you.”

  


Jaemin takes his hand and drags him into a more secluded area before pulling him into a tight embrace and sighing. “I’m happy to see you here, Mark. But what did you mean by next year?”

  


Mark hums and pretends to think about it. “Didn’t you say that getting tutored by me distracts you, then shouldn’t we think of a reward for next year so that you concentrate better?”

  


Jaemin gapes at Mark before laughing. “Oh my god, you’ll tutor me next year as well?” Jaemin hugs Mark tighter than before. “Well let me say thank you in advance, please take care of me next year as well.”

  


“I will,” Mark replies with this fondness in his voice it makes the hairs on Jaemin’s skin rise. “But only on one condition."

  


“Condition? What is it?” 

  


“You must call me Hyung,” Mark demands so seriously it almost cracks Jaemin up.

  


“Just call you Hyung? That’s all you want from me?” Jaemin questions. Donghyuck had already been calling him Hyung so Jaemin had assumed it held no special value for him.

  


“Yeah,” Mark beams and then happily grabs Jaemin’s hands. “I searched up what people use to call their lovers and one of them was Hyung.”

  


“Alright, alright,” Jaemin holds a hand up to block Mark’s smile because of how happy he looked. “I’ll say it.” Jaemin brings his hand up to Mark’s cheek and slowly pulls him closer, leaning over to his ear to whisper, “Take care of me now, Mark Hyung.”

  


They stay like that for a while in silence, none of them moves. Jaemin feels a little scared, worried that if he pulls away he’ll see that Mark didn’t seem too happy with the way he said it, and that was a sight he didn't want to see. Hesitantly, Jaemin slides his hand down from Mark’s cheek and onto his neck before pulling away to get a look on his face, and he loses all thoughts about regretting it.

  


Mark was looking at him with comically wide eyes and flaming cheeks. He opens his mouth to say something and looks like a fish for a few moments. Then he slowly takes a deep breath and gently smiles at Jaemin.

  


“I think we should put off the endearments for now, yeah?”

  



End file.
